Isabella Eugenie Boyer
Encyclopedia
Biography
She was born in ParisParis
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
to French and English parents. She married Isaac Merritt Singer, the founder of the Singer Sewing Machine Co., in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, in 1863 when Isaac was 52 and Isabella was only 22. Singer had a previous common-law wife, Mary Ann Sponsler, who had Isaac arrested for domestic abuse.
Isabella and Isaac moved to Oldway Mansion in Paignton
Paignton
Paignton is a coastal town in Devon in England. Together with Torquay and Brixham it forms the unitary authority of Torbay which was created in 1998. The Torbay area is a holiday destination known as the English Riviera. Paignton's population in the United Kingdom Census of 2001 was 48,251. It has...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
on the Devon
Devon
Devon is a large county in southwestern England. The county is sometimes referred to as Devonshire, although the term is rarely used inside the county itself as the county has never been officially "shired", it often indicates a traditional or historical context.The county shares borders with...
coast because New York society frowned on his many "families." They had two girls and four boys. Their names were Winnaretta
Winnaretta Singer
Winnaretta Singer, Princesse Edmond de Polignac was an American musical patron and heir to the Singer sewing machine fortune.-Early Life and Family:...
future Princesse de Polignac, Isabelle, future Duchesse Decazes
Jean, duc Decazes
Jean-Élie-Octave-Louis-Sévère-Amanien Decazes de Glücksburg, 3rd Duc Decazes and 3rd Hertig af Glücksberg was a French aristocrat and sportsman.-Biography:...
, Mortimer, Washington, Paris and Franklin. Isaac Singer is reported to have had a total of 22 children with his many paramours. Singer died in 1875 and left an estate of about $14 million dollars, which at the time was a colossal sum of money. His two wills created family tension and lawsuits. Isabella was declared his legal widow.
In 1879 Isabella married Dutch
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
musician, Victor Reubsaet, and settled in Paris. Victor was an internationally successful singer and violin
Violin
The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
ist. He was born in 1843 in Sittard
Sittard
Sittard is a city in the Dutch province of Limburg, which is the southernmost province of the Netherlands.On the east Sittard borders on Germany . It has some 48,400 inhabitants . Sittard is part of the municipality of Sittard-Geleen...
, as Nicolas Reubsaet, son of a simple shoemaker. Pretending to be of noble descent, he falsely claimed the title Vicomte d’Estenburgh. In 1881 he did obtain the title of Duke of Camposelice from Italian
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
King Umberto I
Umberto I of Italy
Umberto I or Humbert I , nicknamed the Good , was the King of Italy from 9 January 1878 until his death. He was deeply loathed in far-left circles, especially among anarchists, because of his conservatism and support of the Bava-Beccaris massacre in Milan...
.
The Duchess of Camposelice was still a striking lady when she met the sculptor Bartholdi. It is rumored she was his model for the Statue of Liberty
Statue of Liberty
The Statue of Liberty is a colossal neoclassical sculpture on Liberty Island in New York Harbor, designed by Frédéric Bartholdi and dedicated on October 28, 1886...
.
Victor Reubsaet's died in 1887 and Isabella was married, for the third time, in 1891, to Paul Sohège.
Isabella Eugenia Boyer died at 62 years of age in 1904.